For starters, we don’t really know yet whether raw cookie dough is the source of this E. coli outbreak. It could be something else, and Nestlé will have recalled 300,000 cases purely out of precaution. The most likely source of bacterial contamination is eggs, but eggs typically carry Salmonella, not E. coli O157:H7. And besides, the eggs in raw cookie dough are undoubtedly pasteurized, which ought to kill any bacteria that happen to be present.

The usual source of this toxic form of E. coli is cow manure. Cows that carry this bug do not necessarily become ill, but they excrete it. Recall the spinach E. coli outbreak in 2006? The spinach field was one mile away from a cattle crossing over a stream. California investigators identified the particular strain of E. coli that caused the problem in cattle, cattle feces, and water at the cattle crossing, but did not found it in the field.

All they could do is speculate. Their leading hypotheses were runoff, a change in the water table, and (my favorite) wild boar. Unfortunately for this last theory, when they surveyed wild boar for E. coli O157:H7, they found fewer than 0.5% to carry it. So how E. coli got into the spinach remains a mystery.

As for the cookie dough, I’m guessing that everyone involved is having a busy weekend testing the ingredients, the packing plants, and everything else they can think of. Let’s hope they find the source right away.

Just a hypothesis, but has anyone correlated the increase in contaminated food to the increase in prepared products?

me

I’m so angry with this, because people who have been infected are actually going to sue Nestle. Seriously! There are labels on the packaging warning against eating raw cookie dough. Have people truly become so ignorant?

Whatever happened to making cookies at home without all the crazy ingredients (and the E. coli)? I don’t eat pre-made mass-produced food (or veggies/fruit/meat etc), simply because I want to know where my food is coming from and that it’s healthy.

I drink raw milk from a local farm with no concern whatsoever, but I would never on my life eat raw pre-packaged cookie dough (or eat it cooked for that matter).

M. R. SCOBBIE BS,MS MICRO AND FOOD SCI

HIGH INCIDENCE OF SALMONELLA IN SOY POWDER AND IN SOME SUPPLIERS OF NDM. COTTENSEED OIL MAY CONTAIN PESTICIDES AND HEBACIDES BECAUSE COTTON IS A NON FOOD CROP AND IS NOT SUBJECT TO REGULATION. END.